62nd IMCL Begins in Potsdam, with a Focus on the Architecture of the Livable Future

Noted Author Rick Steves welcomes the conference delegates with reflections on this moment in history for cities -- and for nations

ABOVE: Author and presenter Rick Steves welcomes delegates in a topical discussion with IMCL Executive Director Michael Mehaffy

POTSDAM, GERMANY, October 17, 2025 - The 62nd International Making Cities Livable started here today with a gathering of researchers, architects, planners, developers, mayors, and city officials, with a particular focus on this challenging moment in global history. Delegates came from the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia, and of course, Europe, to exchange frontier research findings as well as detailed case studies, tools and strategies for making successful, flourishing, livable cities and towns.

Noted author Rick Steves welcomed the delegates, observing that this moment in history is fraught with challenges -- but we have the capacity to meet them, if we work together across borders and sectors.

"There are a lot of challenges facing our world today, and the challenges of the future, the big challenges, are going to be impervious to walls and conventional defense," Steves said. "And they’re going to require good governance, they’re going to require embracing science, and they’re going to require nations working together."

Other speakers explored new research findings and case study examples covering walkability, urban health and well-being, public space activation, shrinking cities, climate adaptation, housing affordability and homelessness, gentrification, zoning code reforms, economic opportunity and diversity, educational reforms and professional responsibility, and many more topics.

Officials from the City of Potsdam presented their own in-depth case studies of the city's challenges following their emergence from the East German era and the prior devastation of World War II. They described the slow path to regeneration and revival of the successful patterns of its history.

Saskia Hüneke, long-time Chair of the Central Committee and member of the City Council, gave insights into the political and economic challenges for the city. Bernd Rubelt, Deputy Mayor for Urban Development, Construction, Economy, and the Environment, described some of the specific elements of the city's transformation, and Thomas Albrecht, architect of noted buildings, presented case studies and led tours for delegates.

In his final comments welcoming the delegates, Rick Steves noted the value of these gatherings as opportunities to explore in-depth lessons for cities.

"I’m so glad you’re getting together. I just love cities, that’s why I love to travel. I marvel at how cities work – but they don’t work without good people, caring people, smart people, getting to work together, and raising that bar high," he said.

"So best wishes on your gathering, and… happy travels!"

Above: Delegates get a tour of the beautiful Friedenskirche (Peace Church) in the spectacular Sanssouci Park.

Above: IMCL Board Member Jim Brainard presents an award to Potsdam Deputy Mayor Bernd Rubelt for their remarkable transformation of the city.

Above, delegates gather for the opening plenary.

Above, architect Steve Mouzon describes the migration of patterns across regions as a useful form of genetic information.

Above: Delegates are treated to a tour of the Alter Markt (old market) area, devastated by bombing during World War II, and reconstructed as a beautiful revival of the city's historic core.

Is the Shape of Our Cities and Towns Eroding Our Critical Social Fabric and Stoking Divisiveness?

Among more obvious geopolitical and environmental threats, the threat of civic and cultural degradation may be just as important, if much less obvious. But the answer may be around the corner - literally - in how we shape our neighborhoods and streets.

NOTE: This article is part of a series of discussion posts leading up to the 62nd International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference in Potsdam, Germany, 15-19 October, 2025.

POTSDAM - Recent research literature has been full of cautionary findings about fraying social fabric around the world, in the wake of social media and other influences. Less discussed -- but perhaps deserving more scrutiny -- is the connection to the patterns of our cities, towns and neighborhoods.

After all, it is in our cities and neighborhoods that we move around, consume resources, interact, produce wealth, and generate all the impacts on our well-being and quality of life, for better or worse. While the shape of our neighborhoods doesn't determine our social condition -- an old straw-man argument too often used to dismiss the importance of our environments altogether -- the pattern of neighborhood and building connections certainly affords, or conversely prohibits, our ability to connect with people and places. As the saying goes, if you don't believe that, try walking through a wall.

Equally clear is the decline in daily social connections, and the increase in social isolation, as we increasingly isolate ourselves in the capsules of our cars, our homes, and even our offices -- where we generally meet people we already know, and with whom we have so-called "strong ties" of existing social connection -- co-workers, family members and so on. But the research is demonstrating the importance of "weak ties" -- people we don't know, or don't know well, but who bring new knowledge and new ways of looking at things.

The insightful urban journalist Jane Jacobs observed that it is exactly these "weak ties", formed on the "sidewalk ballet" of the street and its adjoining "third places," that accounts for the knowledge expansion and creativity of cities. Her insights -- now known as "knowledge spillovers," or "Jacobs spillovers" in her honor -- are now well-documented in the literature. (See for example Roche, M. P. (2020). Taking Innovation to the Streets: Microgeography, Physical Structure, and Innovation. Review of Economics and Statistics, 102(5), 912–928. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_00866.)

Put differently, if we want to move beyond existing (likely diminishing) economic assets to create new knowledge and new wealth, we should pay close attention to the role of our public spaces in supporting this expansion. We need "propinquity and serendipity" -- the happy accidents that occur when we encounter others up close in public spaces. There is also evidence that this new wealth can come with increasing resource efficiency and lower rates of emissions and depletion - an important goal for a durable, sustainable economy, and healthy people and planet.

It also appears that the resilience of a neighborhood in crisis depends to a surprising degree on the physical structure of that neighborhood, down to its "lowly" sidewalks. For example, the sociologist Eric Klinenberg documented that in the 1995 Chicago heat wave, neighborhoods with well-connected sidewalks, good connections between the houses, and adjoining "third places" -- shops, cafes, libraries and the like -- had dramatically lower death rates than neighborhoods without them. Klinenberg called these assets "social infrastructure" -- and they are not just an amenity, they can be a matter of life and death.

Evidence is also beginning to emerge that our increasing social isolation is having a dramatic impact on our social fabric, and our ability to interact with, and tolerate, people who may not share our views. Of course, social media allows us to be in contact with vast numbers of people -- but too often, these are people with whom we already agree, or have dismissive or even hostile attitudes. Rarely do we learn from those who are different, or share common bonds.

By contrast, in public spaces, and in their well-connected private spaces, we do tend to come into a more sociable form of contact with different people -- at least, if they are well-structured to afford this kind of contact. A good example is the office of the Lennard Institute in The Dalles, Oregon -- which is also the home of Leslie Barrett, our conference manager. The neighborhood, dating from the 1920s, is a classic walkable layout on alleys, with small cottages lining the street. Leslie's house, like most others, has a friendly wrap-around porch that faces the street, and that allows people to chat in passing, and perhaps to be invited up for longer chats.

ABOVE: The Oregon office of the Lennard Institute, and also Leslie Barrett's home, features a street-friendly wraparound porch. Photo by Aiden Chanter.

In fact, Leslie reports that she has had a number of friendly conversations with neighbors of widely differing political and social views, all of them cordial. The sidewalk and porch bring them into proximity, they begin to chat, and one thing leads to another. Soon, they are gathering on the porch to discuss a wide range of topics -- the weather, pets, and yes, political and social issues. As often as not, Leslie says, if they disagree, they "agree to disagree." They are neighbors, after all, and they know they can rely on one another in a crisis.

This friendly exchange of different views is in dramatic contrast to online encounters, which tend to be all-or-nothing, fully agree or, in effect, be seen as "the enemy". Meanwhile, it's not surprising that the social fabric of the physical neighborhood also unravels when residents retreat indoors -- typically because there are no appealing, well-connected adjacent public spaces to lure them into contact.

The literature on this growing social isolation is telling. In 2000, the American professor of public policy Robert Putnam published Bowling Alone, famously documenting the collapse of civic associations, clubs, and neighborhood organizations, and showing how Americans were retreating from the community bonds that once provided connection and social capital. Even earlier, Richard Sennett published the classic The Fall of Public Man (1977), warning of a retreat from vibrant urban public life into privatized, individualized realms, where anonymity and spectacle displaced genuine civic engagement.

Most recently, Jonathan Haidt, in The Anxious Generation (2024), has documented the alarming trends especially among young people of increasing social isolation, mood disorders, and even suicides. From 2010 to 2019 -- the decade when smartphones and spocial media surged -- Haidt reports that rates of depression, anxiety, depression and suicide more than doubled on most measures. He observes that smartphones and social media are replacing direct social encounters in public spaces with algorithm-driven, too often anxiety-producing online interactions.

In Japan even earlier, a worrisome trend of social isolation was observed, known as hikikomori, literally “pulling inward, being confined”. It is described as a state of prolonged, severe social withdrawal and isolation, where individuals -- often adolescents and young adults -- remain confined to their rooms, often for years or even decades. The environment seems to play a contributing role to this phenomenon, since many young people live in small apartments in tall buildings, with limited opportunities for daily incidental encounters in safe, inviting public spaces. This can reinforce social isolation, when combined with personal or cultural stressors.

These phenomena are not only happening in the USA and Japan -- they now have growing prevalence in other countries too, along with growing political divisiveness. Researchers in environmental psychology note that access to restorative green spaces, parks, and “third places” (cafés, community hubs, libraries) can buffer against isolation, depression and alienation. Their absence may exacerbate withdrawal.

Taken together, these authors chart a sobering arc: as face-to-face interaction diminishes, and as civic and public spaces are hollowed out, societies risk losing the connective tissue that sustains democracy, trust, and the everyday experience of belonging. There is at least one obvious antidote: better cities, towns and neighborhoods, with better streets and public spaces, able to bring us into contact, and to create, and sustain, a flourishing society.

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The 62nd International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference will take place in Potsdam, German, from October 15th through 19th, 2025. For more information, please visit https://www.imcl.online/potsdam-2025.

One Month Until Historic 40th Anniversary International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) Conference!

The Potsdam, Germany venue is a beautiful and instructive exemplar of livability; we will gather there to examine local lessons, share cutting-edge international research, and explore hands-on knowledge about making cities livable -- at a critical time for the healthy development of cities, towns and suburbs.

ABOVE: a few of Potsdam's many livable delights, offering many practical lessons.

POTSDAM, Germany - With one month to go, attendees will gather here from October 15th to 19th to explore the latest frontier research and cutting-edge practice in making cities livable -- as well as timeless lessons. Topics will include walkability, public space quality, zoning reform, neighborhood health, social capital (community networks and inclusion), green cities and climate resilience / adaptation, affordable housing, gentrification, displacement, homelessness, and age-friendly cities.

The theme of the conference is, "What Is the Architecture of the (Livable) Future?" — exploring what architectural forms, urban patterns, and design approaches will best serve the health of people and planet in the coming decades. What are the best resources, from whatever time or place, to meet our challenges? And how can we confront old paradigms of design that are failing us -- that are rooted in the fallacies of almost a century ago -- and begin to engage in a "big rethink" (in the words of critic Peter Buchanan) about the architecture of the future?

To do that, we will explore emerging findings from the sciences, and their emerging implications for architecture and urban design, including neuroscience, neuroaesthetics, environmental psychology, sociology, medicine, and other fields. They offer important lessons for how humans perceive beauty, health, nature, and how built environment can support health & well-being of both people and planet, through concepts like biophilia, nature-based solutions, and an understanding of cities as complex adaptive systems. We will also explore generative design, the use (and dangers) of AI, and other computer-based design processes.

We will also explore ways to frame and activate public space, connecting public/private/semi-private edges. One of the key questions is how architecture contributes to (or degrades) the quality of public spaces, and how the "collective intelligence" of centuries of evolution can provide critical resources to meet our ecological, cultural and economic needs.

We will hear from local officials and experts in Potsdam's history, including the recent reconstructions and new buildings in a traditional character. Among them is Deputy Bernd Rubelt, Deputy Mayor for Urban Development, Construction, Economy, and Environment, and Thomas Albrecht, architect of some of the reconstructions.

ABOVE: Historic Potsdam, reconstructed after the war in an unpopular modernist style by the East German government, and more recently reconstructed in a revival of the city's historic patterns.

93 attendees of the 100 attendee capacity are already registered for the conference. Travel in the Berlin area is convenient and accessible, and fares and hotel rates are still reasonable. Interested parties should visit the website for more information: https://www.imcl.online/potsdam-2025

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Begun in 1985, the International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference series, hosted by the Lennard Institute for Livable Cities, has become a premier international gathering and resource platform for more livable, humane and ecological cities and towns. Our flagship conferences are held in beautiful and instructive cities hosted by visionary leaders able to share key lessons. We are a 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation based in the USA, with alternating events and activities in Europe and other parts of the world.

Attendee comments about previous conferences:

“A wonderful conference.”

“It was brilliantly organized!”

“I left the conference encouraged - there are many challenges ahead of us, but I am so invigorated by the tenacity of those stepping up to face them.”

“This is the best conference I've ever attended. There was much to take in; so many people with exceptional experience.”